The Lady Mayoress and I spent yesterday morning out and about in Penny Lane Ward talking to local producers and retailers and encouraging people to use their services and buy their local produced food and goods.
I am the first person to become the Lord Mayor of Liverpool since we adopted single member wards in May 2023 on the instructions of the Government. This creates problems for me in terms of how I can support the 5,700 people of my ward whilst undertaking duties across the city. In the past Lord Mayors, and other people who have city wide responsibilities such as the Leaders of the Council and Opposition have done less whilst their fellow ward councillors took up the shortfall in time. Now I am the only councillor for Penny Lane which means that I will continue to take sole responsibility for my constituents.
Fortunately, I am going to be helped in this by Lib Dem councillors for other nearby wards notably by Liz and Andrew Makinson who will provide cover for me on the manty days that I cannot make the advice centre. I do live in the middle of my ward and will often work from home so that I am contactable. Instead of having a Penny Lane Focus, which is clearly a Lib Dem publication, I will put out a ‘Penny Lane News’ because I still want to put out regular newsletters to keep people in the loop and ensure that I am doing what is needed.
So, I have made sure that for the first four days since my installation I have been out about in the ward meeting people and doing things to help my community. What better way to do that than to go to the Farmers Market and pop in to the local L18 Advice Centre and to make visits to local shops in Allerton Road and Dovedale Road to show them my support which I did yesterday
My first call, however, was not in the ward but to proudly open a new business just outside my area and which sells my favourite treat – chocolate!! Coco Baroque will be well known to people who attend the Farmers Markets in Allerton Road, Woolton and Lark Lane and other ‘Makers markets’ in the city and beyond. After working from their two homes for 12 years they have taken over the former Dafna’s Cheesecake shop at 240 Smithdown Road where they will now make and sell their products. Steve and Stephen are already doing well at the shop and have employed to help make their delicious cakes people who used to work for Dafna’s. I really wish them well. I will be buying stuff on a regular basis for some of the entertaining that I will be doing in the Town Hall.
Then the rubber really hit the road on Saturday as I visited not only the market but wandered up and down Allerton Road and Dovedale Road to talk to shop keepers and their customers and helping them draw attention to their business through my social media and their own.
Within Penny Lane ward we have two top class delicatessens, a homemade cake shop, bagel company, local bakers, green grocers, fishmongers, gift shops and enough coffee shops to keep the caffeine up and hairdressers make us all look well-trimmed and beautiful. Well, they tried with me and were at least partly successful!
I am very keen on supporting local businesses and do so wherever I possibly can. Local businesses employ local people, buy from, and sell to other local businesses, keep our shopping areas vibrant and pay their taxes in Liverpool for their properties and nationally for their profits. This is a virtuous circle which is so absent from the arm’s length and dodgy tax practices of so many of the global brands that make up the rest of the High Street.
I am not against supermarkets and Erica, and I use them ourselves. They are essential for some products which we can never get on a bigger packet basis from local shops. But I always find them soulless deserts of commerce. On my infrequent visits I am never sure that they are more convenient given the many aisles that you must trudge down and the inevitable queues at the checkout. Nor am I convinced that they are cheaper. Too often they use trick psychology to convince us that we are saving money rather than really saving our hard-earned dosh.
I have a day off today and after I have finished this I will go out litter picking and no doubt, on a sunny day like this, will have loads of chats which will inform me of what people think I should be doing locally and citywide.
As always, I will be available to my constituents by email, phone and, if I am around, by people dropping in on me at my home.
Looking after my ward and local businesses in addition to being Lord Mayor will be a challenge, but I do have the advantage of having, in Erica, a wife and Lady Mayoress who was a councillor for 23 years and is a former Lord Mayor herself. Between us we will ensure that local people are properly supported through this year in office which we are both really looking forward to.
But what does Richard Kemp think? 